The current Covid-19 lockdown has already doubled the number of stalking reports received by Paladin, the national anti-stalking charity.
How to protect yourself:
- Keep a detailed record of what is happening, including texts, emails, or online comments
- Contact the police if you feel threatened
- Confide in family, friends, neighbours and colleagues
- Improve your personal safety by using an affordable protection system like ‘Lookout Call’ to alert your selected alarm contacts if there is an emergency
Stalking may be defined as “a pattern of unwanted, fixated and obsessive behaviour which is repeated, persistent and intrusive, causing the victim fear of violence or creating alarm and distress”
The Protection of Freedom Act 2012 effectively identified stalking as being a criminal offence.
According to the 2019 Crime Survey for England & Wales, there were 1.47 million victims of stalking in the last 12 months.